Facilitators

WFP Facilitator Certification courses are designed to provide professionals with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively implement the 15-month WFP interventions at the highest standard. Separate training is offered for WFP 1 and WFP 2.

Westmead Feelings Program 1: Facilitator Certification Course

The Westmead Feelings Program 1 (WFP 1) is a 15-month intervention program developed by The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and published by ACER. The program enables facilitators to teach emotion recognition, perspective-taking, problem-solving and emotion regulation skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mild intellectual disability (ID).

The comprehensive online WFP 1 Facilitator Certification Course is designed to provide professionals with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively implement the 15-month WFP 1 intervention in their setting to the highest standard.

This course is highly recommended for teachers, special educators, psychologists and allied health and disability practitioners who intend to provide WFP 1 in their setting, and wish to gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully implement the program.

Prerequisite

Note: Purchase of the Westmead Feelings 1 Resource Kit is restricted to psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, special educators, school counsellors, allied health professionals and professionals with a Bachelor degree in Education.

Intended learning outcomes

Participants will be able to:

demonstrate the capacity to use WFP 1, including all key resources, to teach children with ASD and mild ID the skills required for understanding emotions, problem solving, perspective taking and managing emotions

demonstrate the capacity to use WFP 1 to teach parents and teachers of children with ASD and mild ID how to be ‘emotion coaches’, supporting skill development in understanding emotions, problem solving, perspective taking and managing emotions

analyse and critically evaluate a range of positive behaviour support strategies to be able to effectively deliver WFP 1 to children with ASD and mild ID

apply knowledge to implement differentiated teaching strategies.

AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers

The course specifically addresses Professional Knowledge standards 1.5 and 1.6.

Standard 1.5: Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.

Standard 1.6: Strategies to support full participation of students with disability.

The Psychology Board of Australia

The WFP 1 Facilitator Certification Course satisfies the guidelines for 20 hours of continuing professional development required for the annual registration of psychologists.

Course in detail

The course consists of four units and two learning assurance tasks. It covers proficiency in 12 separate areas of WFP 1, through interactive tasks, activities and videos.

Unit 1: introduction and overview

History, research and development of WFP 1.

Differentiated teaching methods for the learning profile of children with ASD and mild ID.

The Westmead Feelings Program 2 (WFP 2) is a 15-month intervention program developed by The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and published by ACER. The program enables facilitators to teach emotion recognition, perspective-taking, problem-solving and emotion regulation skills to children aged 8 to 14 years old with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without accompanying intellectual impairment.

WFP 2 is aimed at children with fluent speech who are able to read and write.

The comprehensive online WFP 2 Facilitator Certification Course is designed to provide professionals with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively implement the 15-month WFP 2 intervention in their setting to the highest standard.

This course is highly recommended for teachers, special educators, psychologists, allied health and disability practitioners who intend to provide WFP 2 in their setting, and wish to gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully implement the program.

demonstrate the capacity to use WFP 2, including all key resources, to teach children with ASD the skills required for understanding emotions, problem solving, perspective taking and managing emotions

demonstrate the capacity to use WFP 2 to teach parents and teachers of children with ASD how to be ‘emotion coaches’, supporting skill development in understanding emotions, problem solving, perspective taking and managing emotions

analyse and critically evaluate a range of positive behaviour support strategies to be able to effectively deliver WFP 2 to children with ASD

apply knowledge to implement differentiated teaching strategies.

AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers

The course specifically addresses Professional Knowledge standards 1.5 and 1.6.

Standard 1.5: Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Standard 1.6: Strategies to support full participation of students with disability.

The Psychology Board of Australia

The WFP 2 Facilitator Certification Course satisfies the guidelines for 20 hours of continuing professional development required for the annual registration of psychologists.

Course in detail

The course consists of four units and two learning assurance tasks. It covers proficiency in 12 separate areas of WFP 2, through interactive tasks, activities and videos.

Unit 1: introduction and overview

History, research and development of WFP 2.

Differentiated teaching methods for the learning profile of children with ASD.

Dr Eliza Ahmed is a registered Educational and Developmental Psychologist. In her practice, Eliza provides diagnostic assessments and individual therapy programs, and training sessions for children, adolescents and their families.

Child and Family East is a community counselling service that supports families with children aged 12 years and under in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. We support neuro-typical children (those without a diagnosis), as well as children with High Functioning Autism or Mild Intellectual Disability. We occasionally run EBSST groups for children in the community.

Belinda is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist, and a qualified teacher. Belinda works with children, adolescents and their families, in a range of areas including social skills, emotional regulation, anxiety, self-esteem, and behaviour. Belinda conducts assessments, counselling, group programs, parent and teacher workshops and supervision.

My role is to support primary and secondary schools in learning and behaviour. I train staff in managing disabilities such as Autism, Behaviour, Reading Difficulties, Motor Co-ordination needs, Hearing Loss, Speech, Language and Communication needs, Personalised Learning and of course, Emotion Based Social Skills. I co-ordinate appropriate training for staff so that they adhere to the Disability Standards for Education.

I am a teacher with extensive experience in primary and high school as a learning support teacher, behaviour support teacher and as a special education teacher. I am trained in Triple P, 1,2,3 Magic and (WFP 1 (formally know as EBBST) and have a BSpEd in emotional/behaviours disorders. I specialise in behaviour support through social skills and parent education.

Dr Belinda Ratcliffe is the lead author of the Westmead Feelings Program 1 (WFP 1). Dr Ratcliffe provides the WFP as part of her boutique clinical psychology practice in South-West Sydney, as well as a range of assessment, diagnostic and therapy services for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Dr Belinda Ratcliffe is a highly qualified Clinical Psychologist, with over 17 years of experience. Belinda is a university medallist and has received multiple prizes for her research. She received her PHD from the University of Sydney in ASD in 2016. Belinda is also a lecturer and regularly provides training to professionals.

Areas of Specialisation: Adults and children with disabilities and diverse needs (such as intellectual, behavioural, physical, social needs etc.) Adults and children with mental health conditions (such as depression, anxiety, PTSD etc.) Adults and children trauma based counselling and assessment Psychological Assessment and Counselling Early Intervention support and program implementation (such as Get Lost Mr Scary; Emotional Based Social Skills Program, Cool Kids Program; Check it out Program; Proactive Program; RAP-A Program, etc.) Parenting Programs (such as 1,2,3, Magic) Case Management and Planning Facilitation (Approved LTCS case manager) Conflict Resolution and Mediation in the Workforce or Family Separation

Dr Fiona H Spencer is a private practitioner providing therapy for children, adolescents and adults in Gungahlin, Australian Capital Territory. Dr Spencer also runs group programs including Westmead Feelings Program, Seasons for Growth and Adolescent Coping. She has been a Psychology researcher at the Children?s Hospital at Westmead, a Lecturer in Educational Psychology at Queensland University of Technology and a School Psychologist in the Australian Capital Territory. She holds a BA and Grad Dip Ed (University of New England); a Grad Dip App Psych and Grad Cert Community Counselling (University of Canberra) and a PhD (University of Sydney).